Cal State Fullerton activists demand student leaders take pay cut

March 26, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Ryan Quinn, front right, and Eloisa Amador, seated in purple, are running for president and vice president of the student body at Cal State Fullerton. Several students, including Juan Villa, Carrie Rael, Brenda Lopez, John Belleci and Luis Castro, back from left, supported Quinn as he spoke during a Board of Directors meeting for Cal State Fullerton's student government on Tuesday. Students were calling on the president and vice president to honor campaign pledges and return 25% of their stipends back to the student government. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Ryan Quinn speaks a meeting of the board of directors of Cal State Fullerton's student government on Tuesday. Students were calling on the president and vice president to honor campaign pledges and return 25% of their stipends back to the student government. Quinn is running for student-body president for 2013-14. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Cal State Fullerton student-body President Dwayne Mason Jr. and Executive Vice President Katie Ayala listen to speakers during a Board of Directors meeting of Cal State Fullerton's student government on Tuesday. Students were calling on the president and vice president to honor campaign pledges and return 25% of their stipends back to the student government. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Cal State Fullerton student board members listen to speakers during a Cal State Fullerton student-government meeting on Tuesday. Students were calling on the president and vice president to honor campaign pledges and return 25% of their stipends back to the student government. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Cal State Fullerton student Carrie Rael speaks during a Board of Directors meeting of the Cal State Fullerton student government on Tuesday. Students were calling on the president and vice president to honor campaign pledges and return 25% of their stipends back to the student government. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Several students spoke during a Board of Directors meeting of Cal State Fullerton's student government on Tuesday. Students were calling on the president and vice president to honor campaign pledges and return 25% of their stipends back to the student government. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Ryan Quinn and Eloisa Amador, seated, are running for president and vice president of the student body at Cal State Fullerton. Several students, including Juan Villa, Brenda Lopez, John Belleci, Luis Castro and Carrie Rael, back from left, supported Quinn as he spoke during a Board of Directors meeting of Cal State Fullerton's student government on Tuesday. Students were calling on the president and vice president to honor campaign pledges and return 25% of their stipends back to the student government. PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Ryan Quinn, front right, and Eloisa Amador, seated in purple, are running for president and vice president of the student body at Cal State Fullerton. Several students, including Juan Villa, Carrie Rael, Brenda Lopez, John Belleci and Luis Castro, back from left, supported Quinn as he spoke during a Board of Directors meeting for Cal State Fullerton's student government on Tuesday. Students were calling on the president and vice president to honor campaign pledges and return 25% of their stipends back to the student government.PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

FULLERTON – A group of Cal State Fullerton students is demanding that the student-body president and executive vice president return a quarter of their annual stipends to the student government, alleging the duo made campaign pledges last year not to accept their full $18,700 and $17,600 awards.

The uproar over the compensation being paid to student-body President Dwayne Mason Jr. and Executive Vice President Katie Ayala comes at a time of increasing student concerns about rising tuition costs, and a year after Cal State Fullerton's new university president, Mildred Garcia, accepted a salary 10 percent higher than her predecessor, infuriating many students.

Mason said that during his campaign last year, he had pledged to look into the feasibility of cutting his pay by 25 percent, but that he and Ayala had decided against it after they learned the position called for a 30- to 40-hour-a-week commitment.

Their stipends come out of the student-government budget, which is controlled by students and also goes to fund campus programs and events.

"It comes down to integrity and staying true to your word," said Frank Sanchez, 22, a fifth-year undergraduate majoring in radio, television and film. "Unfortunately, our president lacks that."

At a student-government meeting Tuesday, the students used the public-comments portion to play back a recorded interview that Mason and Ayala did with the Daily Titan student newspaper during their spring 2012 campaign.

On the tape, Mason and Ayala initially wavered when asked if they would take a 25 percent pay cut that had been proposed by a rival candidate. But by the end of the tape, they appeared to agree to the cut.

"If that's what the students want – that symbolism – that's fine," Ayala tells the newspaper. "Again, we're not in it for the money. We'll do that. That – that's awesome."

The Daily Titan reporter, Peter Cornett, responds: "I just want to know so I can print it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry," Ayala says.

"We're down," Mason adds.

"Yeah, it's 100 percent – that's no problem," Ayala says.

Mason and Ayala said nothing at Tuesday's meeting after the audio tape was played.

But Mason said in a Register interview that he does not recall making the pledge, nor seeing the Daily Titan story in which he was quoted as making that pledge.

FEASIBILITY CONSIDERED

After the duo were elected in April 2012, Mason said he and Ayala looked into the feasibility of using 25 percent of their annual stipends – known as leadership awards – to fund campus scholarships for other students.

But Mason said they decided against it because existing campus scholarships are funded from the student-government's revenue-producing operations, such as stores. To fund additional campus scholarships with money earmarked for student-government stipends would have been a major policy shift, Mason said.

"It came down to more of a philosophical issue," said Mason, 22, a senior majoring in studio arts. "We don't want to take the money directly from one student and give it to another student."

Ayala did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Mason said his cabinet recently proposed a 2013-14 budget that would slightly lower stipends for a number of student offices. The president's stipend would drop $700, to $18,000, and the executive vice president's would decrease $600, to $17,000, Mason said.

At Cal State Long Beach, the student-body president and executive vice president each took a voluntary 30 percent pay cut this year after pledging to do so during their campaigns, said Christina Esparza, a spokeswoman for Long Beach's student government.

The Cal State Long Beach duo is running for reelection and has pledged to fund the student scholarships again if returned to office, Esparza said.

"I've never heard of anything like this here," said Esparza, who has been working for the university for five years and graduated from Long Beach about a decade ago.

Esparza said Cal State Long Beach's top three student officers earn an annual stipend of $16,752. The amount of the stipend is determined based on the university's published information on cost of living in Long Beach, Esparza said.

CSU PAY DISPARITIES

Student-officer pay among California State University campuses varies widely across the system.

At Cal State Monterey Bay, founded in 1994, the student-body president earns $3,200 a year, and the vice president $2,600, said Andy Klingelhoefer, Monterey Bay's student conduct coordinator.

Monterey Bay's student government has a relatively small annual budget because of the campus' smaller size, Klingelhoefer said. The student government also has not yet branched off from the university as an independent public-benefit corporation, as many others in the Cal State system have done, further restricting the group's financial freedoms, Klingelhoefer said.

"Most of the students who get involved on our campus would probably get involved if they didn't get paid anything; they want to be involved in the process," Klingelhoefer said. "They know what the other Cal State presidents make, but that's never been an issue."

At UC Irvine, the student-body president and executive vice president each earn an annual $8,100 stipend, said university spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon.

CLOUD OVER STUDENT GOVERNMENT

Back at Cal State Fullerton, students say the pay cut issue has cast a cloud over their student government. At a campus where just 5 percent of students cast ballots in last year's election, the activists say the student government cannot afford to have its standing further eroded.

"It's not the president of the United States, but it is a public-service office," said Ryan Quinn, 24, who is running for the student-body presidency in 2013-14.

Quinn, a second-year graduate student in the history department, explained the pay-cut issue is so politically toxic on campus that he doesn't even mention it in his campaigning – students won't believe him no matter what he says, Quinn said.

"The students feel they've been deceived, and it has made making that promise difficult," Quinn said. "But it is an issue I intend to deliver upon."

Christopher Sandoval, a graduate student who attended Tuesday's student-government meeting to lobby for more funding for a campus group called Mesa Cooperativa, said he was dismayed to learn how much the top student officeholders make.

Mesa Cooperativa, a Chicano/Latino advocacy and support network, requested about $27,000 from the student government for 2013-14 to support its myriad events and initiatives, but likely will receive about $20,000, said Sandoval, the organization's president.

"We're underfunded, but it's the status quo – it's the same people getting the money every year," said Sandoval, 25, who is studying elementary curriculum and instruction. "I feel like I'm not a priority and my organization is not a priority."

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